Austrian surgeon amputate patient’s wrong leg

Doctors, at least, in olden days had high respect among patients. Patients put all the faith in doctors, when seeking medication and/ or surgery. It came to me as surprise, when I read about an Austrian doctor, who amputated wrong leg of a 91 year old woman by mistake. Oh My God! Was that doctor drunk! I have heard dentist removing a wrong tooth, but a leg.

Doctors also removed the infected leg and the woman was left with no legs. Surgery was conducted at the St. Johann Hospital in Austria’s western state of Tirol and surgeons amputated a healthy leg on June 16th. The patient had vascular disease in the leg and was meant to have a leg amputated below her hip. Woman’s infected leg was removed a few days after the wrong leg was removed.

The hospital’s spokesman said that ‘We are most awfully sorry about the incident’, admitting their surgeon’s mistake. The surgeon who handled the procedure was suspended for 25 years.

Many medical...

malpractices caused by doctor’s negligence have occurred in Austria in the past few years. In March 2005, wrong medicine given by doctors led to the death of a patient.

Well this news came to me as a shock and it was not reported why the doctor amputated the wrong leg. In a statement, the hospital said human errors as well as a breakdown in safety measures were to blame for the mistake, adding that it would “do everything to guarantee this incident is clarified without fault.” I hope proper controls are in place so that such mistakes can be avoided.